THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Five of the public limited companies, which have earlier been in loss, have reported profit in the first quarter of this financial year. Travancore Titanium Products, Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, Steel Industries Kerala Ltd., Keltron, and Artisans Development Corporation are the companies that have recorded profit.

With this 10 out of 40 public limited companies in the state have come to profit. Last year by this time only six of the public limited companies were in profit. These results are published in a report by the RIAB that executes state owned enterprise reform initiatives.

Kerala Mineral and Metal Ltd., Malabar Cements, Travancore Cochin Chemicals, Forest industries Ltd., and KSIDC are the other companies that have recorded profits.

Among these the profit of Malabar Cements have taken a plunge from Rs. 11. 5 crore to Rs. 48 lakh. Whereas the profit of KMML has risen from Rs. 5.37 crore to Rs. 53.01 crore, and the profit of TCC has gone up from Rs. 8 lakh to Rs. 8.18 crore. The turnover of KMML has gone down from Rs. 212.31 crore to Rs. 184.73 crore.

Even though the turnover of 34 companies that were facing loss has improved, and the profit of the companies that were running on profit have gone up, the overall turnover has decreased.

If the total turnover of all the 40 companies in the first quarter of last year was Rs. 698.35 crore, this year it has gone down to Rs. 646.15 crore.